University of Houston Athletics
NCAA Diving Championships: Cougars Set for 11th-Straight Appearance
3/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
March 16, 2011
Thursday: 1-Meter (Prelims - 1:30 p.m. | Finals - 7p.m.)
Friday: 3-Meter Diving (Prelims - 1:30 p.m. | Finals - 7p.m.)
Saturday: Platform Diving (Prelims - 1:30 p.m. | Finals -7 p.m.)
NCAA Diving Championship Central | Live Results
HOUSTON- University of Houston divers Lacey Truelove and Julia Lonnegren will begin the Cougar diving team's 11th-consecutive NCAA Championship appearance Thursday morning at the University of Texas' Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, March 17-19.
Led by defending back-to-back NCAA Diving Coach of the Year, Jane Figueiredo, the Cougars are heading to the NCAA Championships for the 11th-consecutive year and the 28th time in program history. The storied program has collected seven NCAA diving titles and will look to build on that in 2011.
"We're excited to be here, obviously," Figueiredo said. "We're expecting great things as always, but we have to stay within ourselves and not worry about what everyone one else is doing. We need to do like we did last weekend, just stay steady and focused."
Truelove will look to build on her two-time All-America status at the national championship meet. The senior is a two-time All-American after placing in the top eight in the platform competition in 2008 (6th) and again in 2010 (7th).
Although her dominance in the platform event is widely known, the senior is a three-time Conference USA champion in the platform, she has greatly increased her specialty this season. The London, Ontario native won the NCAA Zone D Championships in the 3-meter to automatically advance herself to the NCAA Championships.
After taking the 3-meter Zone D title, Truelove will begin the NCAAs with 15 event wins to her credit, only three of which came from her specialty platform performances.
Lonnegren advanced to the NCAA Championships for the first time in her career in dramatic fashion on Sunday in Austin, Texas. The C-USA Freshman Diver of the Year a year ago waited until the final day of the Zone D Championships to break out a career-best 565.70-point performance to clinch third place in the platform competition.
Figueiredo was thrilled on Sunday afternoon following the sophomore's performance and for the sixth-straight season, she will take multiple divers to compete for national titles.
The NCAA Championship field consists of the 41 best divers in NCAA Division-I competition. Lonnegren is in the elite half of the field that will compete in all three events, making her road to the title even more challenging. Truelove will leave the 1-meter to Lonnegren and put her focus on the 3-meter and platform competitions.
"It's Julia's first time here so she's going to slug it out and give it all she's got on all three boards," Figueiredo said. "I traditionally don't dive Lacey on the 1-meter. We want to keep her energy on her two specialty events."
After becoming just two of 11 divers that qualified from the Zone D Championships, the Cougar duo is further prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. Twenty of the divers the Houston pair will take on this weekend reign from a CSCAA Division-I Top-25 program.
This weekend marks Figueiredo's 20th trip to the NCAA Championships as a coach after qualifying all four years as a diver at Houston. Since 2001, she has been named the NCAA Diving Coach of the Year four times, including the last two-consecutive seasons. Despite her becoming a household name in the NCAA Diving scene, the Cougar head coach beams with pride and excitement about her squad qualifying again in 2011.
"Every year is very special," Figueiredo said. "One: You're glad that you made it and you're back again. Two: Each year you have a new set of challenges and more teams who are working so hard to win. To keep trying to stay at the top is very exciting."
A preliminary round will be held each afternoon, followed by the finals for each respective event in the evening. Preliminaries are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and finals will begin at 7 p.m.
Players Mentioned
